His campaign has unearthed the tired, fuzzy “sanctuary city” label, often used against Houston and other large cities, in his attacks against Democratic gubernatorial opponent and former Houston Mayor Bill White.

It's an interesting strategy, especially since Perry's stone-casting has drawn attention to the state's own shortcomings in combating illegal immigration. It also reveals inconsistencies in the governor's position on immigration enforcement that suggest his stance is based more on (surprise!) politics than principle.

Indeed, people like Youngblood offer some of the same criticisms of Perry as they do of White and Houston.

“We do have a sanctuary governor, there's no getting around it,” Youngblood told me Wednesday.

To begin with, the term “sanctuary city” means so many things to so many different people that it's practically meaningless. It was first used in the 1980s, when cities like San Francisco offered sanctuary to Central American war refugees.

Critics who brand Houston with the label cite a 1992 order issued by a former police chief. It never instructed officers to help harbor undocumented immigrants, or barred them from cooperating with immigration officials.

It sought to ensure the crime-solving cooperation of all community members by banning HPD officers from inquiring “as to the citizenship status of any person” or detaining people solely based the belief that they were in the country unlawfully.

That said, White tightened the policy twice as mayor. Not only do HPD officers now inquire about the immigration status of those arrested for other crimes, but ICE officials have full access to city jails. Police officers are also required to check the warrant status of everyone who is ticketed, arrested or jailed if they fail to show proper ID.

Numbers tell the tale

In December, White launched the Secure Communities program, which automatically checks the immigration history of everybody booked into the city's jails. In just the first two months, police said, ICE officials filed paperwork to detain more suspects — 195 — identified through the system than were detained in city jails — 169 — the entire previous year.

Texas? Not so much

Considering all of this, and the fact that the city uses the e-Verify electronic employment verification system, Houston seems to do more to aid enforcement of federal immigration law than the state of Texas, which doesn't participate in e-Verify, Secure Communities, or its more controversial cousin, 287(g).

And, as the Texas Tribune pointed out recently in a story titled “Is Texas a Sanctuary State?” the HPD policy of not asking about immigration status on the streets is practically the same as the followed by the Department of Public Safety.

While state troopers are allowed to refer suspects to ICE, I'm not sure how often that actually happens. A spokeswoman at the DPS said the agency doesn't keep numbers on it.

But the most interesting irony in Perry's position surfaced in his rejection of Arizona's tough new immigration law, which requires local and state officers to check the status of anyone they suspect is here unlawfully.

It wasn't a subject Perry was eager to address. The governor would seemingly rather talk about anything else — acts of God on an oil rig, shooting a coyote — than the issue of immigration enforcement or the prospect of an Arizona-style law in Texas.

And one can appreciate his conundrum. He wants to appear tough for his base. At the same time, Perry doesn't want to offend generous campaign contributors, such as homebuilders, who rely on immigrant labor. Nor does he want to further alienate Hispanic voters or, heaven forbid, provoke the silent ones to show up at the polls.

We've heard this before

In a news release that was issued with little fanfare, Perry explained his opposition: “Some aspects of the law turn law enforcement officers into immigration officials by requiring them to determine immigration status during any lawful contact with a suspected alien, taking them away from their existing law enforcement duties, which are critical to keeping citizens safe.”

If that rationale sounds familiar, it should. It's the same one White and others have used to defend Houston's “sanctuary city” policy.